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Presents an “in memoriam” tribute to Heinz von Foerster.

Outlines his work.

Introduces his inspiring contributions in the applied sciences and to the more general researches on the theoretical and practical implications of the cybernetic epistemology.

Gives insights to the importance of the work of von Foerster.

The paper serves as an introduction to the special issue on Heinz von Foerster. Major episodes of his life are sketched and related to his scientific convictions regarding transdisciplinary research and radical constructivist. In the second part the contributions to the issue are summarized. Finally, the relevance of Foerster's work is discussed.

The arguments are based on the scientific literature.

Foerster argued against reductionist science and in favor of transdisciplinary research in order to trigger further scientific developments.

By using transdiciplinary and choosing the constructivist perspective, science will increase its productivity. This should be reflected in science policy.

By pointing at the variety of his scientific output and his influence on many colleagues and students, the paper is in support of Foerster's non‐reductionist worldview.

To provide illumination of how systems tend to produce an output nobody expected. It is in these moments that observers may learn something about their own expectations.

The paper discusses two cases in the history of art: faked Vermeer paintings and a test Heinz von Foerster did in the art department at the University of Illinois.

McLuhan's notion “collide‐oscope” is applied to the way Heinz von Foerster (ab)uses images in his own texts; furthermore it is applied to the way the Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) was organized. The formal structure of the “collide‐oscope” offers a model of perception.

Provides a discussion of a fundamental message of cybernetics – that we cannot escape collisions and disturbances. They are its essence.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the influence of the late Heinz von Foerster in the life of an admirer and friend who remains a leader in the field of family therapy.

The approach is autobiographical. The method is (loosely) process recall and personal theoretical reflection. Objectives are achieved by organizing major tenets of von Foerster's constructivism into personal categories of meaning.

Findings included a deep philosophical influence on the author's professional life; an abiding impact on his personal life; and a durability of von Foerster's ideas across disciplines, time, and the ever‐changing theories and politics of the mental health profession.

This paper adds value to the social sciences in general, and to the field of family therapy in particular, because it highlights the interconnectedness of person and profession and the confluence of the messenger/message. Some might say this is cybernetics in vivo. There may be little that is “new” in this paper in terms of theoretical constructs, but the autobiographical nature of the reflections may be its most valuable contribution to others struggling with such concepts.

The main purpose of this paper is to consider knowledge production as a social self‐organization process, to clarify ethical implications of such an approach, and to relate it to the thinking of Heinz von Foerster.

The method employed is the one of dialectical constructions, i.e. existing contradicting approaches on knowledge research are identified and classified and a constructive synthesis of these approaches is made.

Since Heinz von Foerster's pioneering work, information‐generating systems are considered to be self‐organizing systems. We see knowledge as only a particular kind of information: it is the manifestation of information in the social realm. Thus, the creation of social information is due to the self‐organization of social systems. Heinz von Foerster has given us some indications of how knowledge and self‐organization could be applied to society. In this paper, we try to sketch a position of our own while taking into consideration Heinz von Foerster's relevant ideas.

The research results in this paper imply that a knowledge‐based society can only survive if it is designed in a participatory and socially and ecologically sustainable way. Hence a practical implication is that participation and co‐operation need to be advanced in order to guarantee human development.

The innovative aspect of the paper is that it suggests that all social self‐organizing systems are knowledge‐producing systems and that considering knowledge as a co‐operative process implies responsibility for solving the global social problems. It combines knowledge research and systems thinking based on ideas on self‐organization by Heinz von Foerster in order to describe social systems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the heuristics course co‐taught by Heinz von Foerster, Herbert Brün, and Humberto Maturana (1968‐1969) influenced cybernetic research in the USA.

The author accessed the archived material from three sources: the Herbert Brün Library, the University of Illinois Library, and the Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) and interpreted these materials in light of the cybernetics literature, and the publications of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC).

The heuristics course had major consequences in von Foerster's evolving critique of education, and in Brün's work towards founding a School for Designing a Society. von Foerster radically reoriented the BCL toward unconventional course proposals. He also began to critique objectivity and positivism, shifting the foundations of cybernetics and proposing a meta‐cybernetics. The year that von Foerster retired, the BCL and the ASC ceased to function. When the ASC returned in the 1980s it took on new emphases, including education and design. It appears von Foerster was pivotal in the shift of emphasis.

The findings add new dimensions to the story of the decline of the BCL in the 1970s, and the re‐emergence of the ASC in the 1980s with new emphases (such as design) that are not traditionally found in scientific research.

Some of Heinz von Foerster's central topics of reflection (the crucial role of the observer, the admission of the autonomy of the knowing subject, the rejection of all absolute conceptions of truth, the significance of paradoxical and circular figures of thought, etc.) are of consequence to university education and teaching in many different ways.

The author crucially describes the central ideas of Heinz von Foerster and related authors on education, learning and teaching.

The author shows that the concepts developed by Heinz von Foerster suggest a paradigmatic re‐orientation; the concept of knowledge transfer must be replaced by the stimulation of self‐directed learning geared to the reality of students; learning environments must be created that enable students to recognise and experience ready‐made answers primarily as questions, and solutions primarily as problems. The constructivist understanding of the multiplicity of worlds and realities is particularly well suited for university teaching to support intellectual curiosity, fascination, and cooperative reflection.

Heinz von Foerster's brand of subversive constructivism inspires the dismantling of stifling hierarchies of knowledge, encourages dialogue‐oriented learning, relies on the autonomy and intellectual self‐sufficiency of the individual, and stimulates the delineation of ideal‐type role‐models and interaction patterns of different kinds.

To discuss the concept of cybernetics, and to point out its complexities.

Cybernetics can be seen as a scientific concept of harnessing complexity as a feedback phenomenon and a project aimed at establishing a new control science and adaptive technology based on the formalization of complexity. Today, we still do not have adaptive or complex computers.

Cybernetics has failed both as a concept and a project, and is becoming a case for historians. But before it is classified as just a short scientific episode between the atomic bomb and cyberwar, a closer look will show that it was not only a military sponsored project driven by the cold war of the 1950s but also a rebellious movement inspired by the visions of the 1960s. Heinz von Foerster more than anyone else represented this human face of cybernetics.

Considers some of the thought‐provoking ideas of Heinz von Foerster in the history of cybernetics.

The paper discusses possible implications of Heinz von Foerster's notion of second‐order cybernetics for management thinking. The purpose of this paper is to outline challenges of as well as prospective further developments for management theory that emanate from second‐order cybernetics.

As a conceptual paper, the paper tries to develop its findings through theoretically applying von Foerster's insights to management thinking's conventional assumptions. When looking for applications of von Foerster's approach within the social sciences, at least in german‐speaking countries one sooner or later comes across Niklas Luhmann's system sociology. Hence, Luhmann's version of the theory of the observer is introduced and its take on organization and management is briefly outlined. Drawing upon von Foerster's and Luhmann's reflections, possible implications for management thinking are presented – ideas that might be disagreeable for “classical” management science but might set out a path for further developments of management thinking.

What difference might second‐order cybernetics (and autopoietic systems sociology) make for management thinking? As a conclusion, deliberately poignant statements are formulated, calling for a higher degree of self‐reflection, for critical readings of conventional texts, for more complex descriptions of organizations and for a more modest, low‐key take on management theory's endeavours.

Whereas first‐order cybernetics has been fairly well‐received in management theory, second‐order cybernetics, which poses troubling questions to conventional epistemologies, remained relatively unpopular. Acts of “observing observers” reclaim these questions, possibly leading to valuable insights for researchers and reflected practitioners alike.

To point out the relevance of Heinz von Foerster's work to modern embodied cognitive science and artifical intelligence research.

The paper discusses (a) von Foerster's contributions to understanding the limitations of the computer metaphor which has long dominated cognitive science, and (b) his theories concerning how reality is constructed in organizationally closed organisms, and what the underlying neural mechanisms are. The latter is exemplified with a simple neuro‐robotic model that illustrates the constructive and anticipatory nature of memory.

von Foerster's work on the integration of a radical constructivest philosophy of knowledge construction with models of the underlying neurophysiological and sensorimotor mechanisms is still highly relevant to the understanding of embodied cognition and robotic models thereof.

This paper identifies conceptual contributions that von Foerster's constructivist cybernetics can make to cognitive science's still limited understanding of the embodiment of cognition and “representation”.